Brighter Visions
by foggynite
Summary: PRNS. CamHunter. A winterxmas ficlet. Cam reflects on his family.


Brighter Visions  
by foggynite  
PRNS Winter/Christmas ficlet  
Cam/Hunter

* * *

The photo album was older than Cam, the edges of the thick pages yellow with age. He was very careful as he turned each plastic covered page. Snapshots from another time, one he'd been in but was never a part of, and it amused him that he could remember the names of his father's fellow classmates years after the man himself had forgotten. But for Cam, it had been less than a year since he met them, while for Kanoi Watanabe, it had been longer than his son's lifetime.

Sighing, Cam shifted on the bed, making sure not to disturb the album. He could hear some of the academy residents shouting down in the courtyard, teachers and students alike from the sound of it. Blake and Tori must have been having a field day from the screaming, but Cam knew Shane picked up a few tricks in snowball defense, thanks to his Sensei. Even teachers had more to learn.

Two pages of the album were stuck together, and Cam paused before trying to separate them, gently smoothing the pages back down. His mother smiled up at him, shoulders and chin set proudly, and no one could mistake her strength. It shined from her eyes. Cam had always thought so, even before he got to meet her, and now he frowned down at his fingers. It was frustrating that the sound of her voice had faded from his memory despite his best efforts to remember, but he would never forget the feel of her presence. The restrained power in her stance, the wisdom and peace she exuded.

He wondered how his father found the strength to carry on after she died, without letting her loss affect his care of his son. When he was little, Cam had known she was gone, but he had been too young to really understand what was lost until he was older and interacted with children who hadn't been raised at the academy. Until that point, he hadn't felt like he was missing anything. He'd known his father loved him and that had been enough. Even when Cam had been a brat for a short time during puberty, his father had been extremely patient with him, which was far different from the temperamental and confrontational young man Cam had met in the past.

"You gonna sit in here all day?"

Cam startled, quickly looking up at the tall figure filling the doorway. Hunter's hair was wet and plastered to his skull, as was the neck of his sweatshirt and the cuffs of his sleeves. His pant legs were darkened all the way to mid-thigh.

"Those of us with common sense prefer not to get soaked in the freezing weather," Cam pointed out wryly.

With a snort, Hunter pulled the sweatshirt off and let it splat unceremoniously on the floor. Kicking off his boots, he stripped to his boxers.

"C'mon, Cam. How often does it snow in California? You have to take your fun where you can get it." He gave Cam a sly glance from under his lashes.

The samurai merely raised an eyebrow and returned his attention to the album. His boyfriend was such an attention whore.

With a chuckle, Hunter wandered into the bathroom, and Cam found it harder to focus on the past in front of him when he heard the shower start. Now Hunter was just taunting him. But the shower turned off before Cam could decide whether to get up or not, so he relaxed back onto the twin-size bed.

"Did it really look like this when you lived here?" Hunter complained from the bathroom.

"What, clean?" Cam called back as he turned the page. "I realize now that it's a foreign concept for you, but really. I'm sure Sensei Omino made you fumigate at least once a year..."

"Ha ha." Hunter reappeared with a towel slung around his hips. "I meant the total lack of personality."

Cam debated taking offense, but they'd had this argument before. Yes, his room was rather... spartan, but clutter led to a disquieted mind, and he had always preferred the simple bed and bookshelves (now empty of their contents) over the more ornate room decorations of the other students.

Of course, now that he and Hunter were living together, he had new definitions of the terms messy, packrat, and biohazard. But he had to admit that all of the stuff Hunter had was almost reassuring. Seeing it shoved into every possible nook and cranny of the apartment gave the place a feeling of permanence. Like they wouldn't be packing up to leave any time soon.

"Maybe this is my personality," Cam finally responded.

"Right. I believe you." Hunter rolled his eyes and sauntered over to the bed, settling on the other side from Cam. "Let me guess, all your stuff was down in Ninja Ops?"

The accuracy of that statement made Cam snap his mouth shut.

"It's okay," Hunter continued. "Me and Blake didn't have much in our rooms either until we moved off academy grounds. Well, Blake still doesn't have much in his trailer, but I know he's been stockpiling crap at Tori's."

Cam laughed, like he was supposed to, and moved to close the album. A tanned hand stopped him.

"Is that your mom?" Hunter asked quietly, all teasing aside. Cam nodded. "She's beautiful. There's a picture of her with you and Sensei in Ninja Ops, right?"

"Yes." Cam had to clear his throat. "It was taken a few months before she died."

Nodding in turn, Hunter leaned against Cam's shoulder. Cam had never noticed how tiny the twin-size mattress was before, practically dwarfed by the two of them on it, but Hunter didn't seem to mind. The blonde definitely wasn't sleeping on the floor, despite having his feet hang over the foot of the bed.

"You look a lot like her," Hunter commented suddenly, loud in the silence that had fallen. "But I can see your dad in you, too. You have his sense of humor, though."

"I guess I'm just lucky." Cam pressed back against the weight on his shoulder. Casually, Hunter turned his head to brush his lips across Cam's temple.

"Yeah." Sitting up, he smirked at Cam. "Of course you're lucky; you've got me."

Not conceited at all. Cam smiled. "Yeah."

Standing, Hunter started digging through their duffel bags. "Did you pack my jeans? Dinner's in about five minutes."

Cam glanced at his watch in alarm. His father was supposed to be cooking a small meal tonight for Christmas Eve, so that they could have a larger dinner tomorrow with their extended family. The older Watanabe was supposed to come get him to help with the preparation, though, and Cam couldn't believe so much of the afternoon had slipped past him. It was completely out of character for him to get so caught up in all the memories of the past.

"Chill," Hunter said as he leaned down to kiss Cam on the lips. "It's Christmas break. That implies that you're supposed to relax."

With a defeated sigh, Cam let Hunter push him back on the bed, mindful of the album. Maybe his dad could wait a few minutes...


End file.
